A conventional mobile unit (“MU”) establishes a connection to a wireless network via an access point (“AP”) on power-up and maintains the connection until it is intentionally terminated (e.g., the MU is powered-down) or unintentionally terminated (e.g, connection is unavailable—beyond network's range). While connected to the network, the MU continuously monitors and reassess the connection with the AP. For example, the MU may scan for further networks, looks for a new access point (“AP”) to associate with (i.e., roam) and carry out an authentication exchange with the new AP. These functions consume a significant amount of power from a battery utilized by the MU.
To reduce the power consumed, the MU utilizes a conventional power-save mode. While, in this mode, the MU cannot transmit or receive wireless signals but remains connected to the network (e.g., associated with the AP). Thus, the MU switches from the power-save mode to a wake mode at every predefined time interval (e.g., 1 sec—DTIM interval) to determine whether there is any traffic bound/buffered therefor (e.g., check DTIM). However, the switch between modes at each time interval causes the MU to exit the power-save mode even in instances when there is no traffic for the MU. Thus, the MU is inefficiently draining the battery and not conducting communications.